I feel like I should start this sampler with some showing of incredulity that we’re in August already. This year has gone very fast and it’s getting close to the one year anniversary of me having this website.
I recently did some moving around and made a page for cartoons related to pop culture appreciation. I put all my Simposons stuff there. So if you want to check that out you can click here. It’s all very accurate.
Recently I’ve been thinking about ADHD. I have severe ADHD and have had to find ways of working in a style that allows me to actually get things done. And when I say I have ADHD I mean actual ADHD, the neurodevelopmental condition. These days it’s become common on social media to conflate ADHD with being quirky and a lot of people claim to have an ADHD brain because they got distracted. There’s a lot more to ADHD than a short attention span (which may be caused by a life of scrolling endlessly while seeking constant stimulation) and it’s certainly far from “lol I have that golden retriever energy“.
It’s an odd thing that’s happening in the world of neurodivergence in general. We see a case of a little information is a dangerous thing on social media where people will share things like ‘signs you may be autistic/have ADHD’ etc and then the signs themselves are generalisations and very reductive which many people who aren’t neurodivergent can still relate to. And usally the words lowkey are used in describing the signs because everyone has to talk the same now.
This is important because if people reduce any kind of neurodivergence to a quirk (as has been done with OCD) then the elements of the condition that are disabling are greatly downplayed. And that means the understanding of the disabling qualities of conditions like ADHD is greatly reduced. So much advice from people who don’t actually have ADHD boils down to “have you tried not having ADHD?” because what works for them works because they don’t actually have ADHD.
While thinking about having ADHD, to come back to this sampler, I was thinking about what actually does work for me. And one thing I’ve found has helped is loose structure and some kind of deadline. Basically, ‘use this sort of template or process for doing something’ and ‘this needs to be done by this time’. The former makes the steps in doing something easier because it helps the planning stage but doesn’t become restrictive. The latter provides a more condensed time frame so that something doesn’t go on for ever.
Recently I started doing a radio show on a community radio station. I mentioned before that outside of music and art I do a lot of sports writing, particularly with an eye on women’s sport. Well on the show I’ve had to implement deadlines for myself and be more time-conscious. Time blindness with ADHD is very VERY real. I don’t even know how long I’ve been writing this for. It’s been a bit of trial and error in that I’ve had to learn a lot on the job. Funnily enough for me the elements of the job that are more specific to radio and the show itself aren’t as difficult as things like getting in to studio on time and planning out my days.
Story of my life really. I tend to do better at stuff other people around me struggle with and I tend to struggle with stuff other people around me find easier. A long time ago in what I would consider basically a past life, as it was still when I was greatly suffering with my mental health long before the stage of recovering and getting help, I was in university. I had no problem doing presentations and would always do well in assignments, but I would struggle with socialising and basic tasks like commuting in and out to the college.
I guess that’s life really, we all have things we’re better and worse at. And when someone is neurodivergent the gaps between what they are good and bad at tend to be more pronounced than they are for someone who is not neurodivergent.
For my cartoon samplers I decided to set a specific date to publish. So for the next while I’ll be publishing them on the 8th of the month. I like 2, 4, 8. 16, 32 so I thought I should pick a number I like. I’ll see how that goes.
Since I’ve started doing these monthly I’ve had a few more cartoons included. In this sampler we have therapy, Bruce, a plant doing stand-up, the almighty creator, getting ahead on SEO, and ants.
Bruce continues to fulfill his role as the centre of the Bruceverse whose job is to do his best.
The helpful advice those of us with ADHD get from the normals
Some of the plants jokes are of their time
The Earth was created to give the Almighty Creator scomething to do while they should have been doing other things.
You really have to start optimizing your content early to get ahead
Just two ants having a conversation
And now let’s check in on Bruce….
Bruce is a cultured dog who can enjoy a witticism
Thanks for reading my cartoon sampler. Like I said I’ll be doing these on the 8th of each month going forward. Make sure you follow me on Instagram and BlueSky for updates about my music and more importantly pictures of Bruce.
If you enjoy my work you can leave me a tip on Ko-fi from as little as €2. That’s the price of an espresso in a nice Italian café! You want Bruce to have an espresso from a nice Italian café right? Any tip is greatly appreciated and goes a very long way.
Ronny Punctuation 